Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 2 pages
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Source Description
Dogs were indigenous to the ancient Americas, the Mexican Hairless being the likely model for the West Mexico effigies. Throughout Mesoamerica they served as companions, hunting partners, underworld guides, and even sources of food. Ceramic portrayals of dogs are particularly numerous in the shaft tombs of West Mexico, placed among the burials' myriad human pottery figures and dishes of food for the journey after death. Most dogs are depicted as plump and docile. This one is modeled in a more abstract form. As tomb offerings, the fattened versions may have symbolized food for the deceased's arduous underworld voyage.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
80331
label
Dog Effigy Vessel
core
obj
dtoType
object
citationUrl
pageCount
2
Source metadata
id
80331
contentType
object
stage
normalized
title
Dog Effigy Vessel
description
Dogs were indigenous to the ancient Americas, the Mexican Hairless being the likely model for the West Mexico effigies. Throughout Mesoamerica they served as companions, hunting partners, underworld guides, and even sources of food. Ceramic portrayals of dogs are particularly numerous in the shaft tombs of West Mexico, placed among the burials' myriad human pottery figures and dishes of food for the journey after death. Most dogs are depicted as plump and docile. This one is modeled in a more abstract form. As tomb offerings, the fattened versions may have symbolized food for the deceased's arduous underworld voyage.
provenance
Ron Messick Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico; purchased by John G. Bourne, Santa Fe, New Mexico, between 1990 and 1999; given to Walters Art Museum, 2013.
date
300 BC-AD 200
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Ceramics
sculpture (visual works)
vessels
imageCount
2
pageCount
2
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
18.2
height
26.4
depth
12.3
dimensionsRaw
H: 7 3/16 x L: 10 3/8 x W: 4 13/16 in. (18.2 x 26.4 x 12.3 cm)
Source extras
cul
Colima
med
burnished earthenware
creator_ids
16368
collection_ids
AME
exhibition_ids
none
Page inventory
seq
1
type
photo
mediaId
8a01d9b508a537cb
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
2
type
photo
mediaId
23f964368c5bbd0d
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no